La Universidad Autónoma Indígena de México y la aplicación del derecho humano a la educación para los pueblos indígenas de México

Abstract

The Autonomous Indigenous University of Mexico UAIM, when it was founded, intended to respond to the need of the members of the indigenous peoples of the north of the country to access their human right to quality higher education. The Anthropologist Jesús Ángel Ochoa Zazueta, founder of the UAIM, reported that the indigenous peoples who live in northern Mexico did not enjoy – to put it in legal terms – their right to education, since knowing first-hand the problems that these towns face, by going through them and dealing with them for years, Ochoa was able to document and break down these problems, highlighting the lack of access to higher education for the members of these towns. This lack of access to quality higher education still persists as we have documented and that we report in this document. The violation of the human right to education that is committed by the Mexican State against indigenous youth who live in the north of the state of Sinaloa, is due to several factors: One is that indigenous youth do not have sufficient economic resources to cover the costs of pursuing a degree, we report that this is the factor that has the most influence on the lack of access to this type of education. Another factor is the great distances between the indigenous peoples and communities in which these young people live and the universities that in the states of Sinaloa and Sonora, Mexico, are based in medium-sized cities. Also, we were able to identify as a factor that prevents access to quality university education, it is the high cost of public transport and the scarcity of units that provide the service in an efficient and accessible manner among the indigenous peoples and communities and the places where they are located. Universities are located. In the state of Sinaloa, public transport is one of the most expensive in the world, if we consider the indicators of cost of the ticket / distance traveled. Given this scenario and to solve the problem of lack of access to higher education for young members of the indigenous peoples of northern Mexico, such as the yoreme-mayo, yoreme-yaqui, guarijíos, koncak, it was founded in 2001 the Autonomous Indigenous University of Mexico UAIM. Since its foundation, the UAIM has put into practice an educational model based on research and complied with the provisions of articles 1, 2 and 3 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States that refer to indigenous peoples and education. Thus, the UAIM, to ensure that indigenous youth who wished to pursue a degree, were able to access their human right to education without restrictions, this by not applying any type of admission exam, in addition to granting them lodging scholarships, of food and exempt them in the payment of school fees. Despite the efforts of the UAIM and other higher education institutions based in the north of the state of Sinaloa, young members of indigenous peoples still do not have access to quality higher education, as we report in this essay.